Federal job vs contractor job in mid-40s

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree with not counting your chickens— even assuming your friend is right that the hiring official would like to hire you it’s not that unusual to have to cancel an opening because the people coming thru the cert as highly scored aren’t the people the hiring officer thinks are right for the job.

Whether a job is challenging varies a lot across the fed govt but in general there is a lot more challenge and responsibility than most people expect.

Also coming to the feds late in your career is a great time— work 10 years/until you are 57 and you have retiree health benefits for life, which might be almost as valuable as your pension. Compare that to the increasing risk of age discrimination over that same time period and to me, for a single parent (with less room for error) it’s a no brainer to move.

You better hope that no one finds out about that, because both of you would be gone in a second. No, a millisecond.

That’s not true at all.

The announcement needs to go out for open and fair competition. Then HR has to review the resumes. It only matters if the hiring official gets the resumes (assuming OP even makes the cert and he agency doesn’t have some mid-point between HR and the hiring official like mine does) and then if there is someone else clearly more qualified. There shouldn’t be anyone clearly more qualified if OP makes the cert.

All this said, I’ve seen people who literally lost the job that was announced for them. A veteran got through or someone else was just clearly better qualified. Most interviews are panel interviews so more than one person needs to agree. Of course people are brought in on purpose, but just as often people lose the jobs they think they’re certain to get.

OP if your friend thinks that you’d be hired, they should be helping you understand how to frame your resume and interview style to get the job in a fair open competitive environment.

We all know nepotism happens in the Government, just like anywhere people work, but it’s not as straightforward as in private industry.

This, plus if the friend can help write the cert, they can stack the odds in OP's favor by weaving in a few specific experience reqs that OP has but are maybe not very commonly found in one person, then have it stay open for just a short period of time. So for a program analyst position, prior experience with say, elephant training, brain surgery, and bond trading. Yeah, sure there might be one other person with that particular skill set, but odds are good that it would go to OP. It would be the job description that would make most people think, huh? And those in the know would say, oh they found someone.

It is interesting that your agency will let the hiring official have that much say in the announcement! Where I am, all of the specialized experience has to come directly from the PD, which is either already established or if new has to go through a strict classification process - and for a position like a Program Analyst would be pretty boilerplate. HR pushes standard Department PDs now, too. Hiring officials have almost no say in how the announcement is structured.

[Anonymous]

I understand the concern that federal work can be less dynamic and fast paced, but given the scope that makes a lot of sense. I’ve spent more than a year in a working group with colleagues re-writing some regulations that will effect millions of Americans. We don’t do this work quickly or take the consequences lightly, which is appropriate. There are many reasons to join the civil service, including stability and great retirement benefits, but the mission and impact are also impossible to beat.

[Anonymous]

Hey OP
Can you friend get me in too

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thank you for all of these replies and great advice!

For various reasons I've decided not to go after the fed position, but appreciate all of the advice here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does the federal worker pension program include healthcare? TBH at this point in my life I would do almost anything to ensure access to quality healthcare after my working years.

Yes; you can keep your current coverage under FERS while retired...you will have to pay for it. Being a govie in your 40s is a good gig.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you for all of these replies and great advice!

For various reasons I've decided not to go after the fed position, but appreciate all of the advice here.

Can you elaborate??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does the federal worker pension program include healthcare? TBH at this point in my life I would do almost anything to ensure access to quality healthcare after my working years.

It does- insurance options are fantastic. You need to be qualified for and take the retirement in order to have access.

+1

OP, you get no benefits as a contractor, how is this even a question? Do you know anything about the job, at all? This is the first thing you would know.

Presumably OP works for a company and has a 401(k) and health insurance through her employer.

I'm a contractor who has no desire to take a Fed job (mainly because the agency I work at keeps offering me GS11-13 jobs and I make $170,000).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does the federal worker pension program include healthcare? TBH at this point in my life I would do almost anything to ensure access to quality healthcare after my working years.

It does- insurance options are fantastic. You need to be qualified for and take the retirement in order to have access.

+1

OP, you get no benefits as a contractor, how is this even a question? Do you know anything about the job, at all? This is the first thing you would know.

Presumably OP works for a company and has a 401(k) and health insurance through her employer.

I'm a contractor who has no desire to take a Fed job (mainly because the agency I work at keeps offering me GS11-13 jobs and I make $170,000).

A 13 is worth a lot more than a 170k contractor job

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does the federal worker pension program include healthcare? TBH at this point in my life I would do almost anything to ensure access to quality healthcare after my working years.

It does- insurance options are fantastic. You need to be qualified for and take the retirement in order to have access.

+1

OP, you get no benefits as a contractor, how is this even a question? Do you know anything about the job, at all? This is the first thing you would know.

Presumably OP works for a company and has a 401(k) and health insurance through her employer.

I'm a contractor who has no desire to take a Fed job (mainly because the agency I work at keeps offering me GS11-13 jobs and I make $170,000).

A 13 is worth a lot more than a 170k contractor job

13-10 is $133465 in DC. How that could worth a lot more than a $170 job?

[Anonymous]

^ fed benefits (pension, life time health insurance, flexible schedule, TSP)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you for all of these replies and great advice!

For various reasons I've decided not to go after the fed position, but appreciate all of the advice here.

Can you elaborate??

One of the reasons is that, after more discussions, it's looking like the position would pay substantially less than what I'm paid now. Given the benefits I have now, including a high level of flexibility and telework options (which I think are not a given in government), I'm not convinced that the pension is worth it.

Also, there are a number of private sector firms that I would love to work for, and I want to keep aiming for these. Going after this fed position felt like making decisions based on fear rather than what I want to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you for all of these replies and great advice!

For various reasons I've decided not to go after the fed position, but appreciate all of the advice here.

Can you elaborate??

One of the reasons is that, after more discussions, it's looking like the position would pay substantially less than what I'm paid now. Given the benefits I have now, including a high level of flexibility and telework options (which I think are not a given in government), I'm not convinced that the pension is worth it.

Also, there are a number of private sector firms that I would love to work for, and I want to keep aiming for these. Going after this fed position felt like making decisions based on fear rather than what I want to do.

Curious how much difference was the salary? True flexibility can be less in Fed, but as a contractor your contract could change tomorrow and after your badge swap (assuming you are high value and will be retained) you can have a radical change in benefits.

What kind of places where you want to work? I’m in IT and I dreamed of working at Palo Alto Networks or Salesforce, but I eventually realized my contractor experience was in no way applicable to those places. If you are in your 40s and you want to achieve a reach job at a more prestigious corp you need to step up NOW, because I think doing that in your 50s is unlikely unless you bring something amazing to the table.

So I would take this moment of decision to solidify your plan for that reach job, and be prepared for the next recompete. Let us know your plan b/c I hope to do something similar but have not gotten beyond offers from my 2nd tier companies (and the pay was only like $30k over my current contractor salary).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does the federal worker pension program include healthcare? TBH at this point in my life I would do almost anything to ensure access to quality healthcare after my working years.

It does- insurance options are fantastic. You need to be qualified for and take the retirement in order to have access.

+1

OP, you get no benefits as a contractor, how is this even a question? Do you know anything about the job, at all? This is the first thing you would know.

Presumably OP works for a company and has a 401(k) and health insurance through her employer.

I'm a contractor who has no desire to take a Fed job (mainly because the agency I work at keeps offering me GS11-13 jobs and I make $170,000).

Sounds like my current situation, now if they were to offer a mid 14 I'd seriously consider it. However in the last couple years, all the 14 have come from the outside.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does the federal worker pension program include healthcare? TBH at this point in my life I would do almost anything to ensure access to quality healthcare after my working years.

It does- insurance options are fantastic. You need to be qualified for and take the retirement in order to have access.

+1

OP, you get no benefits as a contractor, how is this even a question? Do you know anything about the job, at all? This is the first thing you would know.

Presumably OP works for a company and has a 401(k) and health insurance through her employer.

I'm a contractor who has no desire to take a Fed job (mainly because the agency I work at keeps offering me GS11-13 jobs and I make $170,000).

Sounds like my current situation, now if they were to offer a mid 14 I'd seriously consider it. However in the last couple years, all the 14 have come from the outside.

Why did you revive a 4 year old post that last had comments almost 3 years ago?

You do realize that OP has probably long since made the decision whether to take the job or not, right?

[Anonymous]

I think the idea that there is no challenge in government work and you can’t take on new challenges is very narrow. Once you’re in a job, you can usually move pretty easily within the agency, and some jobs are far different than other jobs. Your pension would not be so fantastic if you only work another 15 years. It would be 1% of your high 3 multiplied by 15. So, at $150K that’s like 22.5K a year, not that bad, but not necessarily worth your 4.5% per year you’d contribute. Staying 30 years would give you $33K, but the real value coming mid career is in the healthcare and job stability.


Stop making some ignorant judgment that federal work is somehow disinteresting and lacks challenge. Figuring out how to inch things forward in a heavy bureaucracy has its own form of challenge and you need to find value and accomplishment in doing more with less, and in the overall value of federal work. If you see no actual reason for it, or think it’s below you, stay private. You won’t be happy.